Google News Verstappen: "We've made a big step forward in qualifying this year"
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Max Verstappen is delighted with the second consecutive pole position for Red Bull and the first on the Red Bull Ring track and says they are much stronger in qualifying this year than last year, but that Mercedes is still extremely strong in race conditions as they consume less tires.
Verstappen waited until the seventh race in the second pole position this season, but in the eighth race in Austria he took the second consecutive and third pole position in 2021 - the first time since 2013 that Red Bull won the pole position on two consecutive tracks.
. Qualifiers have been Mercedes ’stronghold since 2014 and only Leclerc in 2019 was the exception as the driver with the highest pole position (7) although Mercedes still had the most as a team (10, Ferrari 9, Red Bull 2).
Consistency
This year, Verstappen is extremely consistent in qualifying despite some minor mistakes that cost him pole positions like those in Imola and Portugal, and now he starts first on the track where he has previously celebrated in 2018 and 2019.
“Of course this is a great result, the first pole position on the home track and I feel really good about it,” Verstappen said. "We've made a big step forward in qualifying this year, and although the car has been quite competitive and easy to adjust all weekend, we've still made some good changes ahead of qualifying." “For my part, the first Q3 round was pretty good.
You don't have a lot of corners here, but it's actually quite difficult to put together a good lap due to braking for the third and fourth corners where it's easy to lose a tenth if you make a small mistake. ” "When I started driving in F1 [2015] this was always one of the tracks on which I felt good because there aren't a lot of corners where a driver can make a difference, which I like." "Some tracks are pretty simple when it comes to entering corners, but here you have a few options and that makes it very interesting." "I expect the race to be super tense, we know Mercedes has a strong race car and they are pretty good on the tires so it will be very close, which is good for the fans as well." Verstappen looks confident and at Red Bull they can only hope to continue with such good performances